Carmen Moreno and Amparo Carbonell – Daughters of Mary Help of Christians - Martyrs

The lives of Sister Carmen Moreno and Sister Amparo Carbonell were simple, but filled with generosity and readiness to take up day by day the task of responding to God in the everyday. Carmen Moreno was born at Villamartín (Cadice) in 1885 of a well-to-do family, Amapro Carbonell, instead, was born at Alboraya (Valenza) in 1893 of a poor family. Carmen came to know the FMA in Seville, at the boarding school where she spent some time after her father's death; Amparo, in the same city of Valenza, where perhaps she went to work. Her vocation was very different from that of her older sister's who later deeply regretted it.

Carmen's life involved teaching, administration, animating the community. Her busiest years were certainly the ones at Valverde del Camino, where she spent time with a little Saint, Eusebia Palomino, the simple kitchen girl, not only gifted with simplicity but also extraordinary gifts. In 1936, Sister Amparo and Sister Carmen found themselves in the same community. Amparo was always a kind of factotum woman, Carmen was her vice directress. The Santa Dorotea house in Barcelona was the one that Don Bosco always wanted, and founded not only with financial help, but in a complete spiritual sharing with Mrs Dorotea da Chopitea, rich in societal terms, but poor in the way she lived her days in the spirit of the Gospel.

In July 1936, at the height of the civil war, they came to see that the house was in danger. The Sisters (around seventy of them), twelve novices and ten girls were still in the boarding section and were quickly sent elsewhere. Some of the Sisters who could not find safe refuge with friends or relatives went to villa Jarth, belonging to a German Protestant who was a great friend of the Sisters. It was 19 July. Two Italian ships left the port at Barcelona and some Sisters were offered a berth amidst all these anxieties and difficulties. Sister Carmen and Sister Amparo wanted to stay. They wanted to help a Sister who had recently been operated on for cancer. Then they would leave together...

On the night of 1 September steps of violence were heard on the pathway. Sister Carmen, Sister Amparo and Sister Carmen Xammar, the one who had just come out of hospital, (subsequently released), were arrested. At dawn on 6 September their tormentors opened the cell doors and brought their victims to the racecourse in town, beside the sea. There was gunfire and the two bodies were left there on the ground. There was one final macabre rite early that afternoon. The bodies were brought to the polyclinic at the University for medical examination. Their tormentors wanted to have a semblance of legality; they wanted a diagnosis on their documents, backed up with photos as usual.

For us these document their sacrifice. We have no idea where the bodies of Sister Carmen and Sister Amparo finished up. What we do know is that their reputation as martyrs began immediately, then spread, and remained over time until finally their Cause for Beatification was opened. They were beatified by Pope John Paul II, along with other Spanish martyrs, on 11 March 2001. They are remembered in the Liturgy on 22 September.